AC lines have exposed metal at connections (sweating)

[PROZAC]

While looking in the engine compartment after driving home (1 hour), I noticed that the Air Conditioning lines have exposed metal at the fittings that were sweating and obviously exposed to engine compartment temperatures.

Has anyone ever thought about running heat resistance tape along the lines as well as wrapping the metal ends of the hose. Less heat exposure, less O ring degradation, improved longevity of the O rings, less line sweating through exposure to heat???

I need opinions.

 

[RickyCRX]

This is pretty common with all car manufacturers. Some have better systems than others. It seems to me that no matter what brand of car you have, o-rings and compressors tend to fail around the 6-8 year mark of ownership. I got really lucky on my CRX and didn't have ANY A/C problems until 12 years after the car was manufactured and 181k miles down the road. And even then, I think it's an electrical issue and not a compressor or freon leakage issue.

I haven't studied the routing very closely on the 4Runner as to where the A/C lines run, but the few times I've looked around under the hood there seems to be plenty of room for airflow that they shouldn't have too many problems with heat.

 

[PROZAC]

Thanks for the reply.

I hear you about o-rings and compressors failing around 6/8 years. A close friend of mine just figured that out this weekend on her 98 Acura. We both put the glasses on to view the dye with the light.

I think I am going to spend 10 bucks and wrap the lines with some heat resistant tape from Advanced Auto. In an ideal situation, the lines would not come ANY where close to the headers, and you are right, there is sufficient room, yet the lines do run near and alongside the header and I don't like to see lines sweating. To me, that just equates to inefficiency.

 

[RickyCRX]

Yep, if they are sweating the freon is definitely exposed to the warmer engine bay temperatures. That is the low pressure side, which will be going back towards the compressor. That freon will just be getting recompressed and heated up again, but you can at least prevent it from warming up any more than necessary on its way back to the compressor by wrapping it. I didn't think very much of it was exposed, but again, I haven't looked all that closely at the A/C system design on these vehicles. As for the high pressure side, you actually WANT that side to be exposed, as the temperatures of the freon as it exits the compressor will probably be hotter than the ambient air around it, and since it's going back through the condensor after it leaves the compressor, it's cooling anyways, so that's a good thing.
So, to answer your question, wrap the low pressure side that you see 'sweating' but leave the high pressure (HOT) side unwrapped.

Ricky

Thanks for the reply.

I hear you about o-rings and compressors failing around 6/8 years. A close friend of mine just figured that out this weekend on her 98 Acura. We both put the glasses on to view the dye with the light.

I think I am going to spend 10 bucks and wrap the lines with some heat resistant tape from Advanced Auto. In an ideal situation, the lines would not come ANY where close to the headers, and you are right, there is sufficient room, yet the lines do run near and alongside the header and I don't like to see lines sweating. To me, that just equates to inefficiency.